Spiffy:

Iffy:

Summarize it however you want, Wii Music didn't quite make the splash that Nintendo expected when the publisher pulled back the curtain during its E3 press conference. The reception among hardcore gamers seemed to range from blase disinterest (insert your "meh" here) to full-blown nerd rage ("they bumped [some hot rumored game] for this?!"). Few were completely won over with Nintendo's demonstration. Hands-on demos at the show didn't fare much better; Wii Music's gentler approach to interactive music-making couldn't compete with the megawatt wall of sound emanating down the hall from Rock Band 2. So here's the good news and the bad news (for us) from our latest hands-on with Wii Music: It's better than we thought, and we'll take a warm plate of crow with a gentle garnish of parsley.

What's gotten better about it since E3? Frankly, we attribute it to the demo itself. We won't bore you with details of E3 demo schedules, but we found out that Wii Music really isn't a game that you can show off in five minutes and appreciate its depth. Thanks to Nintendo's Steven Grimm, we got a significantly deeper play session than in LA, and we're a lot more confident in the game as a result.

The key, we discovered from Grimm, is about how you approach it. During E3 Nintendo's one-man brain trust Shigeru Miyamoto referred to Wii Music as a "toy" rather than a game, which caused some mild controversy. Nintendo's JC Rodrigo, who showed off the game during Nintendo's press conference, told us after a demo that Miyamoto's exact words were something different in Japanese, but the closest translation (though not totally accurate) was "toy." And although we've had concerns that Wii Music would be little more than a $50 Fisher-Price set on a disc, Grimm quashed those doubts by demonstrating the nuances.

Grimm took steps not only to explain the subtleties of different instruments, but also chose instruments to complement our choices. That's a complete 180 from our chaotic first hands-on, in which a trumpeter, a DJ, a barking dog and an electric guitar all created the sonic equivalent of a 10-car pile-up during a cover of the Super Mario Bros. theme. This time we strummed an acoustic guitar to the notes of Earth, Wind, & Fire's '70s classic "September" as Grimm supported us on bass. The intimacy of a two-person band (instead of a rowdy pack of game critics) demonstrated the ability of Wii Music to create a chemistry that's unique.

Rock Band introduced the idea of teamwork. Ask anyone who's played with a good drummer, and they'll tell you that percussion is the glue that keeps the band together. Wii Music goes beyond that. In spite of its deceptively simple interface, it's a game that seems to reward improvisation and experimentation. Sure, you can put a band together that sounds like a cat with its tail stuck in a car door, but through experimentation with harmonizing, percussion, and chords you can make some great-sounding covers that are a lot of fun to play. Plus, there's an optional guide that suggests exactly when to hit certain notes. It doesn't mean that you can't improvise, but it makes for good training wheels.

Each time you play a song, Wii Music remembers what you've played, note for note, and replicates it. For example, if you play "Ode to Joy" on harmony as trumpet, and you want to switch to chords and play harp, the game remembers your trumpet performance, and you can complement it on harp. Ultimately you can become a one-person band, should you desire. You can also send your performance to friends over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and they can riff and improvise off of your existing work. These are small and subtle steps that dovetail nicely with the idea behind the game.